Cold reeds,
beneath the boards,
of the boardwalk sideshow,
And an old month’s snow
stillrows and born
of rambles long ago.
bell cups of coin drop periscopes
and coney white fish
incubate between pendulums and palmistry
How these heresies
reduce his mad ranting orator
to a heap slaughtered carp.
they fold neatly
their cravat creases,
then pocket the epic of eons,
slipped delicately as a love tome
into the pale green eggs
of a clawed leaping worm.
Bitter twigs ruststain
samovar skies,
as Saracens strapped
with sacks filled
with whittled scarred scapula
foretell and foretwist
in complex hexagrams,
incidental striations-
hewn and exposed
by the bone-casters’ throws.
The clouds dissolve
and rhapsodomancers
wonder when one thing becomes another
beneath the tree where she fell.
They chant a plum processional;
once scattered like cock corn:
in dust and encircled,
they rap now near the knothole,
startling Jarmara and Vinegar Tom.
Comments
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Sure could use a new Mushika poem.
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Are you reading the Discovery of Witches?
I just love the title but cannot tie it specifically to anything in the poem other than I do know plum flowers are used homeopathically.
It doesn't matter how occluded the message of this poem is --your poems have the ability draw me in -nearly holding my breath until the end.
The first stanza reminds me of Madam Marie, Asbury Park's famous fortune teller on the Boardwalk. I grew up combing those beaches in search of Springsteen and hearing his songs in the wind coming off the waves.
And just who is that orator in the second stanza?
The Saracens can be as simple as people who followed Islam or as complex as:
There is also the people-deceiving cult (threskeia) of the Ishmaelites, the forerunner of the Antichrist, which prevails until now. It derives from Ishmael, who was born to Abraham from Hagar, wherefore they are called Hagarenes and Ishmaelites. And they call them Saracens, inasmuch as they were sent away empty-handed by Sarah (ek tes Sarras kenous); for it was said to the angel by Hagar: "Sarah has sent me away empty-handed" (cf. Genesis xxi. 10, 14). These, then, were idolaters and worshippers of the morning star and Aphrodite whom in fact they called Akbar (Chabar) in their own language, which means "great". So until the times of Heraclius they were plain idolaters. From that time till now a false prophet appeared among them, surnamed Muhammad (Mamed), who, having happened upon the Old and the New Testament and apparently having conversed, in like manner, with an Arian monk, put together his own heresy. And after ingratiating himself with the people by a pretence of piety, he spread rumours of a scripture (graphe) brought down to him from heaven. So, having drafted some ludicrous doctrines in his book, he handed over to them this form of worship (to sebas).[11]
(wiki).
but the hexagrams and the bone-charms - all lead me back to Magic - magic of fortune telling, witches, etc.
rhapsodomancers -- use song and poetry to cast their spells...
The last two lines are fantastical as they bring it to the present with"rap" and near the knothole -- the Tree
and Jarmara and Vinegar Tom bolt the continuing story to what was is and always will be ..the Mystery of things we cannot explain.
Matthew Hopkins in March 1644 in the town of Maningtree, Essex, UK. He claimed he spied on the witches as they held their meeting close by his house, and heard them mention the name of a local woman. She was arrested and deprived of sleep for four nights, at the end of which she confessed and named her familiars, describing their forms. They were:
* Holt
* Jarmara
* Vinegar Tom
* Sacke and Sugar
* Newes
* Ilemauzer
* Pyewacket
* Pecke in the Crowne
* Griezzel Greedigutt
Hopkins says he and nine other witnesses saw the first five of these, which appeared in the forms described by the witch. Only the first of these was a cat; the next two were dogs, and the others were a black rabbit and a polecat. So it's not clear whether Pyewacket was a cat's name or not. As for the meanings, Hopkins says only that they were such that "no mortall could invent." The incident is described in Hopkins's pamphlet "The Discovery of Witches" (1647).
Post more please.
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Simply wonderful. Can't crit this poem: it's got a mood all its own.
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